Warning: Bad Puns In Vicinity

Okay, so I just watched the Czech Republic - Finland game (Finns won 4-2), and saw Jaromir Jagr knocked out of the game early on by everyone's favorite Finn, Jarko Ruutu. I present for your consideration a number of possible newspaper headlines concerning the incident:

- Bounced Czech (both off the boards and out of the game)
- Czech (Jagr) and Balance (Ruutu)
- Jagr Gets Finnished
- Blank Czech (Jagr looked pretty stunned for a minute)
- Jagr Gets Board At Olympics (the penalty called was officially boarding)
- Czech Is Czeched
- Finnish Him! (The ever-popular Mortal Kombat cry)
- Jagr Knocked Out By [Mickey] Finn (a Mickey Finn is a drugged drink)

Anyways, that's all the bad puns I could think of off the top of my head. In other news, Canada lost to Switzerland 2-0 this morning: we outshot them 49-twentysomething, but couldn't beat their hot goalie in Martin Gerber (we actually scored two goals, but both were called back: one for a foot in the crease, and one because the replay was non-conclusive on if it crossed the line). Thus, tomorrow's game against the Finns is absolutely huge: if we win, we probably have second place in the group (depending on how the Czechs do), and possibly first. If we lose, we'll be in a dogfight with the Czechs for playoff position. We'll have to see how it goes!

This must be Valentine's Day: I could never get the hang of Valentine's Days...

I'll be impressed if anyone gets where the title quote is stolen from: post what you think, and I'll put the correct answer up later (hint: it's modified from another day). Anyways, happy Valentine's Day to those of you who celebrate it. It's an interesting holiday: can be a really positive experience for couples, but it is often very depressing for those of us who are single... oh well, my "celebration" consists of cranking up some Guns N' Roses, and relaxing to classic power ballads about the benefits and pitfalls of love. Anyways, enough on that topic...

So, what I've been doing lately: went to Montreal a couple weekends ago with some friends, and got to watch my first-ever hockey game in a bar: quality stuff! Quebec definitely has the right idea on drinking age: if you are old enough to vote or join the army, why shouldn't you be able to drink legally? It's not like the current age limit stops anyone anyways: in fact, I think there would probably be less problems with excessive drinking in college if 18 year olds were allowed into bars and clubs. In a bar or club situation, they won't serve you if you're severely intoxicated already, which is quite different from house parties or drinking in your room, where there is absolutely nothing to stop you. Also, it would allow freshmen to be more fully integrated into the campus social experience: there are so many cool concerts/clubs/other events that you can't partake in if you're under 19. Oh well, legislation clearly isn't supposed to make sense, so I guess this law fits in with the rest of them...

Other stuff going on: I've been playing a lot of squash (really cool game!) and intramural ball hockey to keep in shape, and have also spent a lot of quality time watching hockey. I'm stoked for Olympic hockey (starting tomorrow!), and one advantage of living in Ontario is most of the games are at somewhat reasonable times (I only have to get up at 7 A.M. tomorrow, whereas if I still lived in B.C., I would be waking up at 4 A.M. to watch the game). Canada should do well, but the Swedes and Czechs both offer formidable threats, so it will be a great tournament. Winter Olympics are all-around awesome anyway, especially the crazy stuff like skeleton and bobsledding: much better than anything in the summer (and Canada actually wins stuff!). Also, reading break is next week, so that will be some quality time off from the grind of classes: I still have lots to do before then though. I don't have any plans yet, other than to sit around here and watch some quality hockey, but something may come up. Anyways, I'm out of time for now, so that's all!

I Should Be Allowed To Think

Bonus points to anyone who recognizes the song with the same title and knows which artist it's by... answers at the end of the post. Anyways, the issue that reminded me of this song: the reaction to the Danish cartoon of Mohammed... read the latest developments here.
It annoys me that people are willing to go around burning embassies just because they were criticized. However, what I think is even worse is how the media's allowed to criticize selectively, but people get up in arms over things like this. For example, far worse things are printed about George W. Bush every day... I have no problem with these (even though I heartily disagree with many of them), and I think that they serve a useful role of keeping people interested in politics and keeping tabs on the government. There are even TV shows (like Jon Stewart's Daily Show, for example, and many other less prominent ones) that basically use criticizing Bush as their whole programming list, and even raison d'etre. Again, they're providing a somewhat useful role. However, why is there nothing from the other side? Why can the right wing never say anything without getting raked over the coals? For example, Danish newspaper cartoon, which isn't even decidedly right-wing but somehow dares to manage to criticize the Left's favorite cultural/religous group (Palestinians) for electing Parliament whose platform is to commit genocide? I can understand why this is offensive to many Muslims, but it really isn't fair to allow free speech in only one direction. For example, there are plenty of people who go around saying that the Jews made up the Holocaust and should be wiped off the face of the Earth (the Iranian President is only the most prominent example)... I don't see anyone even peacefully protesting outside the Iranian embassy. This cartoon is not making up facts: rather, it's exaggerating for effect to show the reality of Muslim extremism. I have no problem with Islam in general, and I don't think the cartoonist does either: like every religion, it has those who abuse it in the name of God, and do not reflect on the whole. However, it seems to me that as many shots as possible can be taken at Israel, the U.S., Jews and Christians, and right-wing politicians, but everyone else is somehow protected from free speech. Even just in ordinary conversation, Bush jokes fly a mile a minute (and now people are making Harper ones too), yet no one is allowed to even indicate that they might support some ideas of the right wing without being looked at strangely or even shunned. It's almost Orwellian: all ideologies are equal, but some are more equal than others...

The song is "I Should Be Allowed To Think" by They Might Be Giants: amazing band, and I highly recommend them.

Edit: For evidence of my point about reverse discrimination, check out this interesting page by a Middle East analyst, Tom Gross, where he has collected a grouping of cartoons from Arab nations and newspapers often labeled as moderate and allied to the West. Every one of these cartoons goes at least as far as the Danish ones, but in the opposite direction, and many are more offensive (to my mind, anyways): these "liberal and moderate" papers are publishing cartoons referring to Israel as the Nazis and the Palestinian camps as Auschwitz, and even one that implies Israel orchestrated the attacks of September 11, 2001. I haven't seen any embassy firebombings or threats against the citizens of these nations as a result. Again, I fully support freedom of speech, and I say that these countries and papers can print what they like: they just then shouldn't be outraged when others are allowed to do the same (and even on a smaller scale).